Q&A: Learning On The Job

Lynn Olson, a senior editor at Education Week and a
contributing writer for this magazine, is one of the nation's top
experts on the burgeoning movement to link children's school
experiences to the world of work. Her new book on the subject, The
School-To-Work Revolution: How Employers and Educators Are Joining
Forces To Prepare Tomorrow's Skilled Workforce, was published last
month by Addison Wesley. In it, Olson describes how various programs
work, the promise they hold, and the obstacles they face. She talked
with us about the trend.

What is the school-to-work revolution?

It's an effort to connect the academic content that students learn
in school with its use in the world outside the classroom.
School-to-work activities can range from exposing young people to
real-world experiences in the classroom to putting them in the
workplace to learn for a period of time. Good school-to-work programs
don't jettison academics; they help provide more students with access
to rigorous academic content by providing opportunities to learn in
active, hands-on ways. Many students say they learn better that way and
that they're more motivated when they understand how learning applies
to their futures. School-to-work also provides an avenue for educators
and employers to collaborate on the needs of young people instead of
just throwing rocks at each other.

Who are the players driving this movement?

In the communities that I visited, this was really a grassroots
effort. Sometimes educators began a program after they realized that
many of their students were going straight into the workplace or off to
college without being prepared for that transition. Other times,
employers approached schools because of specific labor shortages or
because they were concerned that high school graduates lacked the
skills to succeed.

These efforts are spreading slowly. But it's hard work. Schools and
businesses are not used to working closely together. Vocational and
academic teachers both fear losing ground. And parents, rightly, want
to ensure that these programs don't cut off access to college.

The best messengers for school-to-work are really the students
themselves, who often are extraordinarily moving in describing what it
has meant for them. One young woman, Alfreda Cromwell, told me, "I
wasn't this big, bad person before. But I definitely wasn't into
school, and I definitely didn't want to go to college.'' After she
began participating in an internship at Harvard University's real
estate office and enrolled in a work-based seminar at the Rindge School
of Technical Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her whole attitude
changed. She earned straight A's. She stayed late to finish projects.
And last I spoke with her, she was arranging her college-admission
interviews. The research done to date suggests that other students have
been similarly motivated by well-structured school-to-work efforts.

How will this new emphasis on the workplace change what we expect
of students?

Both employers and colleges want high school graduates who have a
solid academic foundation that includes the ability to read fluently,
speak cogently, write coherently, and solve mathematical problems. But
educators, business leaders, and colleges increasingly recognize an
additional set of skills that young people need to make it in today's
world. These include the ability to use technology, to work in groups,
and to frame questions and find answers to problems that aren't always
neatly structured. These are skills that schools have not necessarily
emphasized in the past.

School-to-work also challenges educators to rethink some of the
traditional hierarchies within the academic disciplines. Why do we
assume that only a tiny fraction of students can benefit from a physics
class? Why is calculus more valuable than a good course in probability
and statistics?

Will teachers have to do things differently?

That all depends on the teacher. I think the best teachers encourage
their students to learn by doing and to apply what they are learning in
new ways. Furthermore, not everything in education needs to be
immediately useful or practical. Applied learning or career-focused
instruction can be taken too far. There is nothing worse than asking
students to write a memo to Macbeth.

But we can't expect all young people to be motivated solely by
abstract ideas and principles. At some point, students will ask, "When
am I going to need this?" For many teachers, that will mean bringing
more real-world problems and projects into the curriculum and providing
more opportunities for students to get out into the community, whether
that's through service-learning projects, observing and talking with
employees on the job, or more intensive forms of learning in the
workplace.

One of the best ways to help teachers get started is for companies
to provide short-term internships for teachers so they can observe
modern workplaces firsthand. But there's also a need for high-quality,
well-validated curricula so that teachers don't have to invent
everything from scratch.

We also need to break down the barriers between vocational and
academic teachers within high schools because both have a lot to
contribute. And we need to rethink 45-minute class periods that make it
hard to find room for hands-on learning or learning outside the
classroom.

Does the school-to-work movement have implications for elementary
schools?

Many elementary schools already provide rich learning experiences
for students that connect children with the community around them. I
think about my children's own school. Last year, my son went on a
simulated trip to the moon, complete with a visit by an astronaut. It
was a wonderful unit that included applications from math, science,
reading, writing, and history. Professionals from all walks of life
regularly visit the school as part of a "visiting scholars'' program.
Some people advocate that school-to-work begin in elementary school.
But I think what's really needed are these kinds of engaging,
interdisciplinary projects that tap children's natural curiosity about
the world, let them learn by doing, and suggest that all kinds of
futures are possible. I think a lot of educators have wondered why we
lose so much of that excitement as students progress through
school.

There are those who argue that in preparing students for the
workplace we run the risk of giving them a narrow education. Is this a
problem?

It's a legitimate concern. Many vocational programs have been too
narrowly focused in the past, and they have provided students with
watered-down academic content. In contrast, many of the jobs that will
exist in the next century haven't even been created yet. That's why
it's essential that all students have a solid academic foundation.

Many of the good school-to-work programs that I visited focused on
preparing students within a broad career field--such as medicine or
manufacturing--rather than training them more narrowly to be, say,
certified nursing assistants or welders. The way the economy is
changing, most of us will have to continue learning on the job and in
school for the rest of our lives. So we want to give students the basis
for doing that. In addition, schools need to prepare students for
citizenship and for a rich personal life, not just for work. I'd never
want to see a system that focused solely on preparing students for
careers. But for most of us, a good life also means the ability to earn
a living and support a family. And there's nothing wrong with that.

What are the three most important things schools need to bear in
mind as they put school-to-work programs in place?

Quality is everything. Both educators and employers need to look at
what they're doing and ask if it's really worthwhile. The worst thing
that could happen would be to slap a new name on existing poor
practices or to ignore quality in order to reach large numbers of
students.

First, schools need to ensure that these are rich, rigorous learning
experiences for young people--both in school and out. Second, students
and their parents need much better information about careers and
colleges so that they can make informed decisions about the future. The
goal should be to increase choices and opportunities for young people,
not to make decisions for them. Third, I think one of the most powerful
aspects of good school-to-work programs is that they put young people
in close, ongoing relationships with adults who can serve as role
models and mentors. We've allowed many of our high schools to become
much too big and anonymous for young people. I think school-to-work can
be part of a much broader agenda to raise academic standards and make
high schools more personal, meaningful places for learning.

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